A Very rare and large Japanese wooden figure of a monk A Very rare and large Japanese wooden figure of a monk A Very rare and large Japanese wooden figure of a monk A Very rare and large Japanese wooden figure of a monk

A Very rare and large Japanese wooden figure of a monk

Reference: ART2001011

Very rare and large wooden figure with vague traces of paint carved from one piece of wood of a monk sitting on his legs and holding in his hands respectively a vajra and a rosary as usual in Shingon and Tendai schools of Japanese Buddhism. In the belly of the monk is a cavity containing 25 scrolls of scriptures all in the Tibetan language together with some resin and other substances (left from a cremation?). The figure shows individual features and the whole figure is clearly a-typical for Japanese monk figures. Could this figure been carved to commemorate a Japanese monk interested in Tibetan Buddhism.